24 MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. [May, 



Report of N. S. Shaler, Assistant in Palaeontology. 



The greater part of my time since my last report has been 

 given to the work of instruction in the Museum. A larger 

 number of students than have ever before sought instruction 

 within the walls of the Museum are now partaking of its advan- 

 tages. Owing to the illness of Professor Agassiz the whole ot 

 the instruction in zoology and palaeontology has fallen into my 

 hands, and as teaching of a practical kind, as well as by lectures, 

 had to be given in both these branches to a class that now 

 amounts to thirty-seven students, it will be easily perceived 

 that little time has been left for the special work on the collec- 

 tions. A good deal has been done, however, in the way of 

 improving the mechanical condition of the whole collection and 

 carrying forward its arrangement. By carefully systematizing 

 the work of those persons who are aiding me in my task 1 

 have been able to secure as rapid an advance, in the work of 

 preparation for exhibition as ever before accomplished during a 

 single year. Miss Cutler has been employed in placing the 

 Lamellibranchiate and Brachiopodous shells on tablets for the 

 exhibition rooms. Of these groups about eight thousand tablets 

 have been completed and are nearly ready for the shelves. Miss 

 Atkinson has been engaged in cleaning the specimens and in 

 making lists of the fossils laid out for exchange. Both these 

 ladies have attained great skill in their respective branches of 

 work, and have displayed a most intelligent and devoted inter- 

 est in executing the tasks which have come into their hands. 



Mr. Crandall has aided me greatly in the work of getting the 

 collection of Lamellibranchiata in order for exhibition. The 

 locality catalogue of the whole of this collection is now made. 

 The specimens are all numbered to correspond with the number 

 on the lists, so that displacement is not likely to occur and can 

 always be rectified. I hope before the next report to announce 

 that the whole collection of Aceptala is ready for the shelves. 



The Anticosti collection of fossils, made in 1861 by Messrs. 

 Yerrill, Hyatt and myself, consisting in the main of several 

 tons of blocks of stone containing valuable specimens, has been 

 brought into better shape by breaking up those masses and 

 arranging the material for monographic work. This tedious 

 work has required a great amount of supervision. It now 



